Arsene Wenger On New Signings & Finding A Replacement For Arteta

With the January transfer window now open for business we’ll be keeping you up-to-date with all the latest transfer gossip. Today, Arsene Wenger gives an update on his transfer activity.

As Gooners were left reflecting on another frustrating weekend’s action, we all hoped for some encouraging news from Arsene Wenger about potential new arrivals after the defeat to Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking to Arsenal.com, the boss once again confirmed he was working hard to identify new players saying his team analyse everything and scout targets but refused to reveal any specific names.

Midfielder Mikel Arteta missed the City game after picking up a calf injury in training on Friday and is likely to miss the next three weeks. Many are questioning how we’re going to replace the Spaniard but Wenger doesn’t think it will be with a new signing as he claims it’s difficult to find players of Arteta’s quality in January.

The boss told the clubs official website:

on making signings…

We are in the market. To find players of a calibre of Arteta, available in January, I wish you good luck. We try very hard, believe me. We have a team around me who analyse everything. We select targets, I watch them… But it’s difficult to speak about any names.

Before this weekend, Arteta had played every minute of Premier League football this season – mainly due to a lack of depth in the squad – so who’s surprised he’s picked up an injury? Not me.

So now we face 5 games in 13 days in the defining part of the season, and we don’t have a fit defensive midfielder available. Well, actually, we have Francis Coquelin and Emmanuel Frimpong but it seems Wenger would rather use a 50% fit Abou Diaby who hasn’t played in 4 months than either of those two, so it doesn’t give them much hope of getting a game any time soon.

I’ve been calling for Arsene to buy a proper defensive midfielder all season and it would have been prudent to do it early in the window, so we would be prepared for injuries like Arteta’s this weekend, but as we reach the midway point in the January transfer window we still await a new face to arrive.

Sure the January window is a difficult one but we’ve put ourselves in this position by not conducting our business properly in the summer. The deficiencies in the squad are obvious for all to see. You just had to look at our bench yesterday to see that. So I’m afraid the excuses of ‘I can’t find the players in January’ doesn’t wash with me, Arsene.

If a club doesn’t want to sell, you make them sell. They do it to us! Be more aggressive and force the issue, talk about how ‘player x has Arsenal DNA’ and all that stuff. Pay what you need to pay to get your targets.

I still think we’re going to buy in the window but unfortunately it seems Arsenal are doing their usual trick of waiting till the last few days to try and squeeze the price down. Which, given the amount of games we’ve got this month, is completely counter-productive.

The earlier they get in and can settle, the more impact they will have upon our season. So it’s time to pull you finger out Arsene and bring in the players we need, or we’ll finally miss out on that fourth-place ‘trophy’ you keep going on about.

Do you think Arsenal will buy? Who would you like to see come in? Get involved in the comments section below.

23 Comments

Leon

January 14, 2013 at 10:22 am

How can he spin the same crap every year and expect people to actually believe him? Wenger is the actual personification of “has been” – he will not raise Arsenal’s level any higher than it is, he will not sign the kind of players we need and he will not win a trophy in the time that he remains at the club – he needs to go and as soon as possible

This is the worst Arsenal team we’ve had in recent time. Teams that have not won us in many years have now broken records against us. Before now I’d predict the outcome of Arsenal’s games but not any more. Doubts and disbelief is what I now bear whenever we have a game to play no matter how irrelevant the opposition is. The major problem we have now is upfront. We had almost the same squad last season except in the attack. Where an attack is not sharp and threatening, a team is as good as dead. We just saw one good attempt by Walcott yesterday. An attacker who can’t take possession of the ball rather he nods it indiscriminately has no chance to make an impact in any game. An attacker without a first time finishing, is not promising. I hate to recall how bad we lost RVP’s but Giroud reminds me.

Wenger is a fool, a player like m’villa, capoue and bilgia is available and we are sufferring for defensive midfielde, we also need a striker like lloriente,szalai or lopez, LET PRAY 4 WENGER TO CONSIDER ARSENAL FAN WE ARE GETTING TIRED.

Arsenal don’t have a team again.am fed up of the club.can’t wenger and the board see other clubs? 8 yrs without trophy.l know very soon fans will stop wasting their money for watching arsenal games.dis is certain.we are fed up of a club that as no future.

I am f**ing tired of you fans, do you realy think this joke Wenger will buy someone??? so dream on al fans who has stil faith on this Joker are deluded. no top player my ass how can be there is not top player only for Arsenal??? W e are 6th on table and al clubs that already bought player in summer or winter are above us, and this deluded ass Wenger say there is no top player to sale. I want ask this joker how many top player have we right now in our squad???
how many times we can blame referee for our mistakes??? Do you really think we could win even we were 11 on pitch?? then dream on and be happy to have this fantastic joker with 7.5m a year for nothing only talk and talk. Transfer window are soon close and he is waiting for Theo to sign ooooooohhhhhhhh top player, if you mean Theo is top player then you are realy on drug or something like that!!!!!!!!!

Wenger is an idiot actually i think his mind is retarded….4 how long are the fans going to suffer? imagine a team like QPR buying a player like M’villa and Newcastle Remy and this idiot cant…..i used to be a die hard fan of arsenal for many years actually 15 but never will i again suffer this much………as from 15 i dithed it and followed RVP am united fan now…

U see…we all arsenal fans have to be patient because wenger may be under pressure…..he will sign bt truly,it relies on aw gud the player is….let us hope he signs b4 d 25th of d season…..GOONER 4 LIFE!!!!!

This is the year that I’ve finally lost total faith in Wenger. In the past he has proved us all wrong by qualifying for the Champions League year on year, but the boards continual lack of financial backing coupled with Wenger’s less than inspiring new signings has made a once ‘World Class’ club a complete joke. After selling our last two world class players in the summer, I think the tipping point has finally arrived and we will see Arsenal go the way of Liverpool.

Are you telling me there is joy with the perfomance of our Arsenal to UK fans?? Do you want to tell me there is literally nothing you can do about it?? If you can’t change the situation, do you expect Nigerian, kenyan, malawian, south American fans to bring change at Arsenal?? Are you content with the direction our team is heading?? Really, the same team which used to be a rival to man u, today seats 21points behind our fore rivals? And you go and fill the Emirates to the brim every game? The same team which bears an unbeaten record?? I put my blame on UK FANS than board and wenger first. There are Managers worth managing Arsenal for our success, not wenger. Now spurs are even comfortably ahead of us, with no signs of dropping points stupidly as we r doing, they have an outstanding, aggressive and hungry squad than us, why this season?? They have an agressive manager in AVB. Thumb me down if you may want, but we will keep sinking our Arsenal with your boring slogan” in arsene we trust”

wenger is not wise,he sold v.p to man u,sold song,fabrigas,hleb and henry to barca and he requested for david villa and the refused to sell.who knows he might even still sell jack wilshire to man u or barca in d nearest future.

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